Life Goes On
by X-x-Kara-x-X
Summary: It's been a year since Uzumaki Naruto was killed fighting Orochimaru. So, why's he running around being nabbed by other villages? Onesided NejiHina, NaruHina
1. Prologue

Hello everyone! It's Kara, with a new story. To anyone who's waiting for my NejiIno fic... . It's coming. I've gotten it written, it just needs to be typed up.

This story is a Christmas present for the lovely Abu-chan, who made a roleplay with this plot, but it never got finished, so I made this for her. 3

I played Neji, which is why there's so much of him in this. ; And Tori, obviously. Sorry for those who don't like madeups, I promise you, she's far from a Mary Sue. She's nosy, loud, and an absolute liar most of the time. Besides, SOMEONE had to nab Naruto, and it wouldn't make sense for someone from Konoha to, huh?

Well, Abu-chan, I hope you like it. 3

If anyone else likes it, I'm glad.

If you don't like it, well, I don't care. O This wasn't made for you.

* * *

_It was pouring down rain. The group of mourners were completely soaked, standing on the Mt. Hokage observatory. They had waited three days for the weather to let up, postponing the funeral as long as possible, but it just kept raining._

_Even the angels were crying for Naruto Uzumaki._

_It seemed so wrong... Everyone dressed in black, everyone mourning... Well, "everyone" was actually only Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Iruka, and the rest of Naruto's friends. A relatively small group. The rest of Konoha was celebrating._

_Tsunade climbed up to the small, tarped raised platform. Behind her, a closed casket draped in flowers. Naruto's face beamed down from the top of it, an enlarged picture of him propped on top of the casket. It wasn't really a picture of Naruto, though. Tsunade could see a bit of Sakura's pink hair from one corner, indicating that it had been a picture of Naruto and his team. It was just a reminder to everyone that no one had ever bothered to take a photo of Naruto when he was alive._

_Tsunade looked out at the very wet crowd of mourners. Clearing her throat, she closed her eyes. "Naruto..." She began, her voice a bit shaky. "Naruto was a hero." She paused a moment, glancing up to see a sobbing Sakura, shaking uncontrollably, Ino next to her, who had wondered away from her teammates, embracing the girl and rubbing her back; Sasuke was next to the two, but he only stood, hands at his sides, face completely blank. Tsunade continued. "But he was never seen as a hero, was he? He was hated... Shunned... Nobody really did try to reach out to him... Except us. We are the only friends and family he had ever known. We are the only ones who have ever shone him love. The only... The only ones who truly understood him. But... Y'know... I don't think we really did understand him." At this, the crowd glanced up at the Fifth Hokage. Tears were welled up in the corners of her eyes, but her lips were curled up in a weak smile. "Naruto would not have wanted this!" She continued. "Not the Naruto Uzumaki we knew. he would not want us to cry or mourn for him. You know why? Because..." Tsunade finally broke down, sobs chocking her, shoulders shaking. She looked down at the ground, eyes clenched shut, but managed to keep her voice from breaking "Because Naruto won! He did it. He'd want us to be happy for him! Because... Somewhere... Naruto is smiling. He'll always... Be smiling..."_

_Tsunade buried her face in her hands, unable to stop herself from sobbing. She only vaguely remember being escorted down the platform. After that, the casket was taken through the Konoha Gates and taken to the site where Kyubi had appeared so many years ago and where he was sealed into the infant Naruto. That was where he had been buried._

_The villargers would never allow Naruto to be burried peacefully in the cemetary. Funny, how this place, of all places, would be the only place that Naruto could really rest without any disturbance. Fate was truly an ironic thing._

_"Naruto..."_

Tsunade's chair went flying through the window of her office, creating a large hole.

"Get out of my office! All of you! Get out, get out, GET OUT!!"

From the entrance of the building, three genin and two other male shinobi hurried out, the genin rushing off, screaming from terror, and the other shinobi retrieving the chair before rushing back into the building. In her office stood Tsunade, her face flushing, panting. In one hand was a bottle of sake, which she took a swing of before slamming it down on her desk.

Drunk. As always.

"Damn, sniveling, little brats." She spat, snatching the bottle again to take another drink. She glared out the large windows.

Pouring down rain.

Just like the funeral.

The shinobi that had retrieved her chair quickly entered, placing it behind her desk before running for the exit. The hokage flopped into it with a sigh.

"I'm too old for this." She said, folding her arms on her desk and burying her head in them.


	2. The fox returns!

Pale, opalescent eyes turned to the Havenans above, not flinching as a drop of water hit him square in the face. _It's raing._ Hyuuga Neji mused as another raindrop hit him. _How appropriate._

It had been a year since he had died. Uzumaki Naruto. Died fighting Orochimaru for that idiot Ichioha. _Well, at least that blonde idiot didn't die in vain._ He'd taken Orochimaru with him, and the Ichiha had willing come back to Konoha Village.

_Not that that makes it any easier._ Neji decided, pulling his eyes doiwn, and through the window of the store he was standing outside of, looking to his cousin.

In Neji's opinion, Hinata had taken it the hardest. It was monthes before she didn't cryu herself to sleep...nightly. And the funeral...

Neji had to help her get dressed, after she had broken into hysterics, and coud barely move from the sobs wracking her body. It had taken the cooperation of him, the Inuzuka, and the Aburame to keep her standing through the funeral service. As a result, he heard little of Tsunade's speech.

Not that it bothered him terrible. He knew what she was saying. Howe great Naruto was, so on and so forth. Personally, Neji doubted he'd ever forgive Naruto for dying. For breaking Hinata's heart, for leaving without fixing the Hyuuga clan. _That blonde fox._

The irony of this statement was lost on the Hyuuga, as he continued to watch Hinata carefully. She was talking to a woman who resembled Yamanaka Ino that she must be her mother. In her arms were a bundle of flowers. Money exchanged hands, and Hinata left, baring the flowers.

Neji quickly put the umbrella in his hands up, just in time to shove over Hinata's head as she emerged from the flower store.

Hinata looked up at the umbrella, frowning determinedly. "Nii-san...I-I don't need an umbrella. I can handle rain."

"I know." Neji replied blandly, showing no sign of putting the umbrella down as he walked besides her, still catching the occasional raindrop, as the umbrella was centered on his younger cousin. The Hyuuga heir sighed, recognizing the futility of the argument.

As they headed to the grave Neji glanced at the bundle of blue flowers in Hinata's arms, recognizing them as forget-me-nots. "Those flowers...are absolutely useless." He gave a few seconds for his cousin to look up m in confusion, before continuing. "Like Naruto would ever forget you."

His feeble attempt at a joke was rewarded with a smile and laugh, which made his pale cheeks warm up.

"Nii-san is too kind." Hinata muttered, still smiling gently. Then the fragile smile fell, as Neji knew it would. He never could make her smile for very long. "Nii-san is always so kind to me."

"It's my job." Neji replied automatically. "Caring for you is my destiny."

Hinata nodded. The Hyuuugas understood destiny. They were visiting proof of destiny. Naruto had tried stopping fate, and now he was dead. And death was as unescapable as fate.

* * *

"Tori! Get up, you lazy girl! Who ever heard of a spy sleeping in?"

A neon-green eye peeked out from messy silver bangs, quickly widening as the formerly sleeping teenager felt her covers slip from over her and a sandaled fott connect solidly with her bottom, kicking the young spy nin out of her bed.

"Hai, Ayame-sensei." Yoshino Tori grumbled, standing groggily and looking around the room. There was her sensei, already dressed in her crimson skirt and standard white wide-collared shirt. But that she had only a few minutes ago been acwuainted with sleep was revealed by her thick black hair, still in a theigh-length braid.

"Well? Don't just stand there! Get your shorts on, at least! We've been waiting for a year, if we miss our chance just because you decided to sleep in..." That her normally mild-mannered sensei had her feathers seriously ruffled over this told Tori how important this was the the older woman.

"Hai, Ayame-sensei." Tori repeated, obediently slipping white shorts on, typing it at the waist with her Akamizu hatai-ate. Slipping her net top over the black cami she wore to sleep finished the job, more or less.

"Don't bother with that mess on you head, it rarely looks any different brushed. Don't forget your sandals! Or the kunai pouch! You're so late, I won't be surprised if you have to fight the Kyuubi out of his grave and back to us."

"Hai, Ayame-sensei." With those last words, and considerable relied at leaving her grumpy sensei behind, Tori climbed out of the nearest window, still pulling on her fingerless gloves, and headed to Uzumaki Naruto's grave.

* * *

Limbo wasn't an especially exciting place. It was pleasant to look at, with rolling green hills and what not, but as there were no other living things within sight, Uzumaki Naruto didn't consider limbo a good place to stay.

There was the Kyuubi, of course. But upon revealing the fact that as his host he only had to wiat for the fox demon to heal before going back into life, their conversations had been incredibly simple.

"Can I go back yet?"

"Not yet, kit. Not yet..."

Naruto didn't know how much time had passed by then. It could've been a week, or a century. There was no sense of time. At least he couldn't feel boredom in limbo. Just impatience to come back to life.

Then, finally, after the week-or-century of asking, the Kyuubi finally responded with the awaited words.

"Alright, kit. It's time."

Before Naruto could speak, ther was a blinding flash of light, and he suddenly gopt the sensation of someone picking him up by the collar of his shirt and lifting him up...

...As Naruto lifted his head up, the blonde had the heavy, almost drugged feeling of having overslept.

_Well, I'm not in Limbo, at least._ The teenager gave a loud sigh of relief at the sight of the cloud-saturated sky, and the fog swirling around him. Naruto realized then that he was sitting up, resting his back on something large and cold.

Turning around, he felt a chill run down his spine as he saw the inscription on the stone.

His gravestone.

"Well, now I'm either really dead, or back to life." He muttered to himself, wondering if death would prove any better than Limbo, if that was the case.

"Oh, you're alive again, Uzumaki Naruto." The boy nearly jumped out of his skin as the voice assaulted him. The first voice besides his own and the Kyuubi's since he had been killed—or something—by Orochimaru. The sound wasn't familiar. Had he forgotten the sounds of his friends voice's? Had they all died? The plausible options thundered through his head, and a headache slowly started to form.

"At least, either you're alive, or I've somehow managed to die and wasn't aware of it." The voice continued, and a shadowly figure emerged, forming into a female Naruto had never seen before, with bright green eyes and a mop of shoulder-length silver hair that looked like it had never seen a brush.

"Who are you?" Naruto called out guardedly, standing on shaky feet. The sensations of life were starting to feel like someone had drugged his tea with sleeping potion. "Are you Kakash-sensei's kid, or something? How long was I gone?"

"Kakashi?" The girl echoed, looking confused. A sudden fear gripped Naruto that he'd been gone for so long that Kakashi was only a name on a list of nins of Konoha, dead for years. But then the girl brightened, and laughed. "Oh, Hatake Kakashi? No, I'm not his kid. You've only been gone a year, Naruto-san."

"A year?" Relief flooded the blonde, before he looked suspiciously at her. "Well, then, who are you? Do I know you? Have I forgotten you?" He quickly ran through his memories. There seemed to be a fully functioning set of memories in there, but...maybe he'd forgotten some?

"Oh, forgive me, Naruto-san. I am Yoshino Tori, of the Village Hidden in Red Water, Akamizu. I'm afraid that my village, and I myself keep a notoriously low profile, so don't feel bad to not have heard of either. But I and my village have heard a great deal about you, vessel of the Kyuubi. And I'm here to make a very interesting proposition to you." This soundly oddly recited, but the girl's face was dead serious, changed from the slightly absent-minded air she had given off before.

Naruto first tried sorting through the words. Yoshino Tori, from an unheard of village, making a proposition to him, the Kyuubi's living vessel. That didn't sound incredibly promising. "What's your proposition, Yoshino-san?"

This earned a grim smile, and a quick look up and down the younger male. _Mentally sound, at least able to understand sentences, and respond coherently. His body seems in good enough of a shape. At least, he's no cripple._

Not that all cripples are what they appear... Tori reminded herself. Coming from a village of outcasts, she had quickly learned that swift judgement (including assuming someone was weaker than you because of disabilities) could bring you a swift kick in the head, if you weren't careful. A village of people whom society could never appreciate, yet the strongest village around. It will suit him nicely. She decided, looking to Naruto and offering a friendly smile.

"Please, Naruto-san, call me Tori-san. Even if my business proposition doesn't interest you, I think it would be best if we maintained a friendly contenence, ne?" She explained, her voice only showing exactly what she suggested, a friendly contenence.

I am here to suggest to you a bargain. My village is looking for strapping young fellows such as yourself. Those who are scorned from society, under-appreciated, seen as less then those around them. Yet inside burns a powerful flame, invisible to the ignorant. There is such a flame within you, Uzumaki Naruto. And all I ask is that you come with me to my village. It doesn't even have to be permanent, you can merely take a week off to visit, look around." If he doesn't like what he sees, a good cup of poisoned tea will remove all dangerous memories, with no harm to either party.

"If you prefer this village, you will be returned, without a single blonde hair astray. If you like what you see..." The smile turned into a grin, a happy one, inviting him to join in the happiness, celebrate the news she had to share. "Then you will be adopted into a family, and become an official member of Aka Mizu. You will be with others like you. We welcome those whom society has cast aside, calling them monsters, beasts, unworthy to live." According to the painstaking research Tori had done, these were exact words from the mouthes of various villagers. Naruto had doubtless heard them, repeatedly, drummed into his ears until he wished for deafness.

At least, that's how Tori would've felt in his shoes.

"A-a family?" Naruto repeated, blue eyes widening, until Tori felt like she was dealing with a little kid. Dang, he was adorable. She wanted to give him a cookie, just looking at him. He'd make a darling little brother.

"And I'd be able to come back if I didn't like it?" At the girl's nod, Naruto grinned. "Well, why not?"

"It's not like anyone missed you while you were dead." Tori assured him, shaking her head. "In fact, there was a celebration or two. That ramen stand refused to have any part in it, if that helps."

"Hello?" Another voice came swirling through the mist, this time recognizable. _But who? Come on, think, think..._ And then two figures emerged from the fog, the pale white eyes and skin, against onyx black hair, made the Hyuuga cousins easily recognizable. But..._Is that Hinata? She's all grown-up now!_

"Time to go." With those terse words, and not a glance at the started cousins, Tori laced her arm through Naruto's, and put her hands together into a seal. "Kiri no justu!" Mist swirled around the four of them, and Tori took a harder hold on Naruto's arm. "Come along now, Naruto-san."

"But Hinata-san...!"

"...Is with Neji."

"Neji?"

"Didn't you just see them together? You're lucky, you didn't catch them in their snuggly mode. Truly, those two need to learn limits on PDA." So she told him a white lie or two. She'd tell him Konohagakure had spontaneously combusted if that's what it took to get Naruto to go with her to Akamizu.

Naruto still seemed to have some trouble catching onto her words. "Hinata's...with Neji?"

"Dating, going out, an item, call it what you will. Now, Ayame-sensei's gonna murder me if we don't get going soon. We'd like to be to Akamizu by tomorrow." Noting his face, she put an affectionate hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Naruto. Your family's waiting for you, and Neji and Hinata will be fine."

* * *

"You heard?"

Jiraiya glanced at his former teammate, raising an eyebrow. "I heard that a hysterical girl and a rather stoic but shaken boy came to your office claiming to see Naruto alive and healthy, standing on his own grave, arm and arm with an unidentified girl." He replied, his voice showing skepticism, but a knowledge that stranger things were possible, laced with a slight trace of hope.

Tsunade nodded, leaning on the railing to the balcony, looking up to the moon. "Hinata and Neji were both quite firm with their story." She sighed, smoothing down her hair, though not a lock had been out of place. "Hinata's a dear, but if it had just been her, I might've chalked it up to heartbreak. But Neji...I find it harder to believe he'd have a tragedy-induced hallucination."

Now the Hokage shot Jiraiya a side look. She knew how hard it had been on him. The fact that he now visited Konoha roughly once a month, if he was feeling socialable, was revealed in that. Not that she had been taking it well either. The bottle of sake in her hand was proof of that.

"They said that it looked like the haitai-ate she wore had red in it. Waves of red."

" 'First blood they spill'." Jiraiya quoted, from children's tales of long ago. "You think Akamizu is behind this? They're usually quiet around our village. We've nothing to do with them, and vise versa. To steal a Konoha nin, right in front of two other Konoha nins..."

"They said he was quite willing." Tsunade replied, rubbing her head, one of her frequent headaches coming on. She'd close her eyes, but the red-rimmed eyes would only remind her how long it had been since she'd slept.

"We've left them on their own, Jiraiya. But, do you think you could..." She waved her hand around to demonstrate what she was trying to say. "Pull strings. Get information. Snoop around."

"For you?" Jiraiya grabbed the Hokage's empty hand, smiling mischievously, but wasn't even rewarded with a smack, only a tired glare. He quickly dropped the hand. Who'd think a fifteen-year-old hyperactive punk could change both of them so much? "For Naruto." He amended.

"For Naruto, I'll do some digging."


End file.
